


The World of City-Spirits

by happybluemo



Category: Original Work
Genre: Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 05:36:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8150975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happybluemo/pseuds/happybluemo
Summary: What if each city and village and town had its own spirit? A physical personification of its personality, its culture, its soul?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is great!

**The World of City Spirits**

Overview

            Every city, town and village in the world has a city spirit- someone who appears human, but for a pair of uniquely pointed ears, but in reality is the very soul of the city itself. This person has certain abilities and knowledge; they are godlike, essentially. The welfare of the city depends on that of this avatar, and vice versa.

            Other things also have guardian spirits; natural formations such as bodies of water, forests, etc. For ease, I will be talking specifically about city spirits, although many of the restrictions and such still apply.

            Many cities have certain themed colors. Those that do also have that blood color, as well as that color for the magic they use.

 

Formation of Guardian Spirits

            When a city is given a name, a guardian spirit comes into being. They are “born” in the heart of their city and intuitively know everything there is to know about it. The “birth” of a city spirit begins when a settlement forms, but many don’t pan out. A city spirit will develop in the ground and claw their way out of the dirt at the time of the city’s official founding. Some form from the merging of several existing spirits instead. This is how Seattle formed.

Some places within others have totally different spirits, some do not. For instance, Puget Sound has a spirit separate from that of the Pacific Ocean, but Ballard does not have a spirit separate from that of Seattle.

            When one city (with spirit A) is incorporated into another (with spirit B), one of two things may happen; spirit A may fuse into spirit B, providing spirit B with all the knowledge and even experience of spirit A as well as control over their charge. The other thing that may happen is that spirit A becomes mortal, losing all their godlike abilities and memories. In this case, spirit B receives control over spirit A’s city as well as all knowledge of the city, but does not receive any memories.

            When a city (or more commonly a natural formation) is renamed, its patron spirit is reborn. They have a different appearance and no memories, but all the same knowledge of the place that was renamed.

 

Abilities, Deaths, and Healing Habits of Guardian Spirits

            In the heart of their city, a spirit may as well be a god. For plot purposes, I will not go into great detail regarding the full extent of spirits’ powers and abilities.

            Spirits can only affect things within the geographical boundaries of their areas; a city spirit only has power within their city limits. They can fly without being noticed. They can also manipulate the probability of things happening, and city spirits have a great deal of control over what happens in their city; they can see to it that a certain structure gets built, for instance. More on this later in a specific section on Seattle and World’s Fairs. The limit of a spirit’s power is that the spirit may not infringe on the free will of individual people.

            Outside of their city, a spirit is entirely mortal and possesses no special abilities but for certain healing capabilities under very specific circumstances. If a spirit is injured inside their city, nothing happens; the spirit heals nigh instantaneously and cannot die within their own city limits. Outside, however, if injured, a city spirit can either draw energy from their city in order to heal as they normally would, or they can heal at the rate of a mortal at little cost to the city’s welfare. Drawing energy from their city can have rather negative side-effects; doing so can spike crime rates, increase the likelihood of natural disaster, harm city economy, even increase natural mortality rates for however long it takes the spirit to heal. All this happens anyway on a lesser scale if the spirit is injured and chooses to heal “naturally,” but effects are amplified when the spirit takes energy from the city. City spirits can also heal- and in extreme cases, resurrect- others by drawing energy from the city similarly.

            When a city is doing poorly in any way, shape, or form, the city spirit suffers; they may become sick, run a fever, get dizzy, vomit, or even pass out. This occurs whether the spirit is within the boundaries of the city or not, unless the initial cause of the city’s distress is the spirit itself.

When a spirit dies outside of their city (which is, of course, the only time a spirit _can_ die), it can have dire consequences. Their city simply begins falling apart, socially, economically, and even structurally. This is what happened to Detroit; its spirit was visiting L.A. when he was assassinated by a yet unknown antagonist. It is theorized that this has happened to Ferguson’s and possibly Baltimore’s patron spirit; either death or grave injury. Their whereabouts are currently unknown.

In the case of ghost towns, where all the people for whatever reason have left and the town has become abandoned and empty, the spirit of that town will become a ghost. This transformation is characterized by the loss of a great deal of their power, intermittent translucency and transparency, and intangibility. This change may be reverted if people once again inhabit the town. If a town ghost leaves their town, the same restrictions apply as with a city spirit; they become mortal so long as they remain outside their town, except that injury and death no longer affect the ghost’s charge, and the ghost may not draw energy from the town in order to heal (due to the fact that there is no energy in the town).

 

 

Seattle

            The spirit of Seattle, like all other city spirits, is known in the spirit world simply as Seattle. However, when living in her city and passing as a mortal, she goes by the alias Sophia Denny; as is customary, the first name starts with the same letter as that of the city, and the last name is that of the settler or founder of the city. Her blood and magic is emerald.

            She was born on May 23, 1853 from two spirits who merged when the name Seattle was given to the city (after Chief Sealth). Despite actually being 162 years of age, she has the appearance of a woman in her mid-twenties. As the feel of the city changed, so did her appearance, subtly; she began as Native American, then Caucasian, and is now Japanese American. She lives in a condo on Capitol Hill with a corgi named Pike and a roommate named Phyllis, who doesn’t know her true nature (nor do any mortals) but is puzzled by Seattle’s many eccentricities and seemingly indispensable supply of cash. Phyllis wonders if Seattle might be a drug dealer or something of that nature. One of these aforementioned eccentricities is an antique wooden spoon Seattle keeps framed and hanging in her bedroom. Little does Phillis know that this is actually a handmade spoon that Seattle stole from Arthur Denny himself.

            Seattle’s first roommate was actually a neighborhood that Seattle had incorporated, which had then become mortal, thereby losing their memories. When they died, Seattle got a new roommate; that is where Phyllis comes in.

 

The World’s Fairs

            Seattle and New York have been trying to show each other up for as long as they have been acquaintances, which is quite a long time. During an argument about who was the superior city, New York mentioned having a “300-foot statue of a lady in a toga holding a torch.” Seattle decided she could definitely build something greater than that, so for the 1962 World’s Fair she built the Space Needle; a 620-foot feat of engineering that towered over the city, twice the height of the meager Statue of Liberty. The 1964 World’s Fair in New York saw the construction of New York State Pavilion (which of course featured two flying saucer towers), which was New York’s way of saying to Seattle, “anything you can do, I can do better.” Seattle just laughed at these pathetic attempts to beat her at her own game; when the mortals demolished the Pavilion in 1977, New York didn’t even try to rebuild, too disheartened by how awful it had been in the first place.

 

Miscellaneous City Spirits

Austin, TX. “Aaron Austin.” A middle-aged white man. Atheist, but not just in a lowkey way. Anti-religious. Obnoxious. Has fairly liberal views other than that.

 

San Francisco, CA. “Stanley-Frederick Moraga.” A young gay white transgender man. Outward personality type that many would refer to as “fuckboy.” Actually a sweetheart.

 

New Orleans, LA. “Naga-Oda Le Moyne.” A middle-aged black woman who looks older than she is. Superstitious, confident aura. Keeps hair in center-dreads with side-cornrows.

New York, NY. “Noah-Yanis Minuit.” An orthodox Jewish man. Wears that hat, has long and curly hair and beard.

 

Kirkland, WA. “Kadambari Kirk.” An old Indian lady. Shops only at Costco; consequently, everything in her house is Kirkland brand.

 

Los Angeles, CA. “Laura-Anna Neve.” A young white woman. Works as a waitress, but is an aspiring actor. Health and Starbucks nut. Doesn’t drive anywhere.

**Author's Note:**

> I would love comments!!


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